Corruption Has Brought Down Many Great Nations

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201002170521.html

Corruption Has Brought Down Many Great Nations

David Sseppuuya

16 February 2010

Opinion

Kampala — Lest we forget, many great nations and empires have been brought down by corruption. Even civilisations, have undergone, owing to the sheer weight of corruption.

- Rome - so powerful, so vibrant, yet so soft in the moral centre. The collapse of the Roman Empire was caused mainly by corruption in the leadership, many have argued. In Corruption and the Decline of Rome (1988), Ramsay MacMullen, a leading historian, argues that the collapse was caused by economic conflict between the upper and lower classes of the empire.

- The Soviet Union - nuclear super power, puppet master of the Eastern Bloc, champion of social equality, but ultimately the real life playing out of Orwell's Animal Farm.

- Some have postulated that the "coming collapse of America as we know it" will be the consequence of corporate greed and corruption. Snippets of it have been evident in the last three years, with inherent economic weaknesses in the US plunging the world into recession.

Which way, Uganda? The choices are stark - either go the way of integrity in governance, or enjoy the short-term benefits of degenerate governance and social existence, while slowly but surely knotting the rope by which the country will hang itself.

Corruption, with all its facets - moral, financial probity, political accountability, personal discipline, social consciousness - manifests itself fairly strongly in just about every aspect of Ugandan life.

Quite apart from the usual suspects - the managers of (financial and material) resources - the custodians of public trust like politicians, the Church, educators, civic leaders and civil servants, as well as family heads, and even primary school children aspiring for class monitor, have fallen foul of the false allure of corruption. And how about the private individual who will not pay her taxes, or let alone the car owner who will not respect traffic rules?

When they compiled the Uganda Country Report

http://www.nepaduganda.or.ug/documents/CountryReviewReport-Uganda.zip, the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) noted that corruption was cross-cutting (that is a broad) problem shooting across the four areas of concern, of democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, socio-economic development and corporate governance. But what, then, is the way forward?
Speaking in Kampala at a public lecture by Sundulos Africa Leadership Training last July, Ghanaian Prof Stephen Adei, an authority on governance in Africa, told Ugandans that "a country without think tank capacity is like a human being without a brain."

Think-tank is the way to go. APRM has taken our governance issues to public discourse, in the form of the Uganda Governance Forum, where stakeholders openly discuss the day's concern and plot a way forward.

The Governance Forum debate on corruption, under the theme 'Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Legal and Institutional Framework for Combating Corruption in Uganda', last month drew a diverse crowd that included the Principal Judge, the Inspector General of Government (IGG), the ethics minister, legislators, academics, church leaders, politicos and politicians of all hue and colour, students and activists, and business leaders. The IGG set the tone from the outset by emphasising that corruption needs honest discussion at all levels.

The consensus is that Uganda has enough, and some even think, a surfeit, of anti-corruption laws.

Witness the Constitution itself, the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Police Act, the Leadership Code, the IGG Act 2002, the Local Government Act, the Access to Information Act, among others.

We could probably get the Whistleblowers Bill and a Witness Protection Bill coming through the legislative processes.

So, it is not for the lack of legislation and, as the Principal Judge puts it, "we should not rely only on the law." We must, as the ethics minister says, cut out "the hypocrisy, double standards and lip-service" that has thus far characterised the anti-corruption drive. Legalism can only help so much, but we should, as well, look at the moral and other extra-judicial approaches. Noting a less-than-zealous willingness to tackle corruption, the think tank has the following recommendations:

- Leadership Code - the public service should ensure that public servants declare wealth at the start of service and monitor it consistently; expand wealth declaration beyond the current pool of public leaders

- Institutions - the Executive must act on recommendations of commissions of inquiry; Parliament must debate and act on Auditor General and IGG annual reports; check actual cost of services and products

- Morals - faith groups must emphasise moral education; moral aptitude tests be part of recruitment policy

- Judiciary - the Judiciary's role is not to fight corruption. There is a need to look beyond prima facie (first sight) evidence; get more judges and magistrates to tackle backlog; consider confiscating/recovering wealth/stolen loot of the corrupt.

As Uganda seeks to transform, the Governance Forum will sit monthly, making its contribution to what management scientist J.P. Kotter calls "a guiding coalition, a coalition which at the national level is a think tank".

Corruption has had its day for much too long. It is too late for the Romans, and the Soviets are but a footnote in history. Where does Uganda want to be?

The writer is a media consultant